Inspired by the presence of freshly cut flower displays and paintings such as Cyclamen and Primula (c. 1923) by Winifred Nicholson in the Kettle’s Yard house, Handpicked: Painting Flowers will present works featuring flowers by artists spanning across the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

This exhibition has been organised with the help of The Kettle’s Yard Community Panel: Bryan Johnson, Abi Moore, Jade Pollard-Crowe, Alan Soer, and Jenny Wood.

When Jim and Helen Ede opened Kettle’s Yard in 1957, one of the key elements of their interior displays was fresh cut flowers. Their flower arrangements created visual correspondences with the forms and colours of artworks in the Edes’ remarkable collection. Handpicked: Painting Flowers will feature artists for whom painting flowers was a lifelong preoccupation, as well as those for whom it represented a brief but intense period of making. 

Alongside works by significant figures of the 20th century, including Vanessa Bell, Henri Rousseau, Winifred Nicholson and Christopher Wood, contemporary artists such as Lubaina Himid, Jennifer Packer, Chris Ofili, Caroline Walker and Alison Watt, will breathe new life into a much-loved subject. There will be one artwork from each artist on display.